


A Conversation in Sickbay

by themadlurker



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Ficlet, M/M, Post-Star Trek (2009), Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-01
Updated: 2009-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28128408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themadlurker/pseuds/themadlurker
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Kudos: 4





	A Conversation in Sickbay

Dr. McCoy sent the last of the away team off with a nod, then turned back to the samples he had collected. When he glanced up a minute later, he was surprised to find Kirk still in sickbay, watching him with a pensive expression.

“You still here, Jim? I've cleared you for duty; I don't think that thing had any lasting affects, if that's what you're worried about.”

“Bones, you worry enough for both of us. No – I was just thinking about Spock.”

“What's the bastard done this time?”

“Hmm? Oh, nothing – I meant the other one, actually.” Kirk had turned his attention to the viewscreen beside him, which he was gazing at abstractedly. McCoy sighed with some impatience.

“Jim! What about the Ambassador?”

Kirk snapped back into focus. “You think a man can choose where he ends up? I mean, make choices that put him in one place or another? That other me – the one from the other reality – we made some of the same choices, but is that enough for both of us to end up here, on the Enterprise? Or was it some kind of personal destiny? That's what Spock thinks, anyway – the Ambassador, I mean. And Pike said something like that once, too.”

“Not that all this isn't very interesting, Jim, but I don't usually think of you as the philosophical type. What's got you all worked up about this?”

“The Ambassador said he was my best friend – in that other universe. He thinks I should be – I don't know – baring my soul to his counterpart or something.”

McCoy snorted. “No offense, Jim, but you're more the type to bare your soul to women, so to speak.”

Kirk gave him an exaggerated wink. “So to speak, Doc. Yeah, it seemed unlikely to me, too. Except I can't stop wondering how much of the other Kirk I have in me. Maybe we both ended up on the Enterprise because there are things about our lives, for both of us, that we don't get any say in - something that goes beyond than our careers in Starfleet?”

“I can't answer that, Jim - I'm not a philosopher. But if you start experiencing any uncontrollable urges to have heart-to-heart talks with the Vulcan, you let me know – I can always scan you for medical anomalies.”

Kirk grinned widely. “I'll come to you first, then. You know – whatever else he may have known about me, that's one thing the Ambassador got wrong. You're the best friend I've got, Bones. No question about that.”

“Lucky me,” he said sarcastically. “Get out of here, Captain. Haven't you got a ship to run, or something?”

“On my way. You know, while I'm here, I did pick up a great bottle of Saurian brandy on Phoresis...”

“ _Later_ , Jim.” McCoy turned his full attention back to his samples, but he still smiled faintly as the sickbay doors swished shut.


End file.
